I’m Buying A Treadmill

It’s time. I need a treadmill. Maybe I’ve always needed one. But those things aren’t cheap. And then there’s the fact that with two kids in the house, what you want to do in your spare time is get out of the house.

But last season training for the marathon taught me a lot of things. One was that I cannot get all my runs in no matter how hard I try. My spouse’s schedule is somewhat random and things come up without notice, effectively cancelling many long-run days I had planned. Then there is the issue that, in Florida, summers are like winters up north – a million weather issues affect runs and drive you indoors. There were weeks during marathon training where my entire team would be suited up to do a run and then all of our lightning apps would be going off telling us we couldn’t run. In one 2 week period I missed at least 5 runs because of storms and lightning. And once you are suited up and across town to run, and realize you can’t, there isn’t enough time to get to the other side of town to get to the gym treadmill and still get home to do school work. And then there were the days with the “feels like 107” temperatures going on. I’d have a 6 miler in the books and the heat would drive me back at 2 miles.

check out this console

I realize this is all nit picking. You can train for a marathon without doing all of your runs. But you’re never going to do them well. All those miles I missed affected my performance during the marathon. And now that I have the Runner’s World Challenge set up, I really want to be serious about it. I want to have no excuses and always be able to get my run in. I want to be able to run at 9pm at night if that’s the time that works for me. I don’t want the spouse’s business trips to wipe out entire weeks of running. I want to hit my weekly mileage with absolute certainties. Also, I’m not gonna lie, the new monitor additions on the treadmills so you can watch tv or movies or whatever, those things are nice. I’m not an elite runner who is studying the dynamic of each run and 100% focused on what is happening. Half the time I just want to zone out and get the miles done because I have to. I don’t fall in love with each day’s run schedule. If I could knock out some junk miles and de-stress by watching tv while I do them, that would be excellent. And maybe I daydream about doing a long run on one while watching the Boston Marathon on tv. And to further prove my run nerd status, I also like how some of these treadmills have the technology to let you draw out a path on Google maps and run those exact routes with your treadmill increasing and decreasing inclines just like on your programmed course. You can even enter something like “Paris Marathon” and it will take you through those set courses. I have also heard that some people have GoPro’d the course so that you can run AND see a course from places around the world. In a way it’s creepy virtual reality. In another way, it’s awesome for someone stuck inside and having to run!!

The cost is definitely a factor though. I’m not looking at super expensive models but really any model is more expensive than hitting the road isn’t it? And that’s my dilemma. I worry that as soon as I buy it, I’ll just be struck with laziness and never want to run no matter how easy it is. I don’t think that will be the case because I know I have to do runs for the marathon and I’ve been running all my life, to include training for races on treadmills. I think anyone is going to go back and forth on large purchases like this. And that’s another thing – the size. It’s no small thing to find a place for in your house. It can be done but it definitely changes things.

I’m still excited though! I want that treadmill here NOW!!! As soon as exams are done, I’ll be ready to start up with the marathon training. Runner’s World Challenge, send me my training plan!!! (but you can wait til spring break, that’s fine)